6 reasons your business has stopped growing

Every business owner or entrepreneur looks for growth. That growth is essential to protect against the loss of clients, or to increase the return from the business. No growth means that you are actually going backwards.

But, even with the best product a great team and awesome clients, your profits can seem to plateau and not grow the way you initially hoped or currently need.

There are a number of reasons for this, below we list out the six we most commonly see:

Not being different
People need a reason to buy from you and not your competitor. Brainstorm how you are different and then conduct marketing on how you stand out. Target a niche that puts a value on your difference and you will make more sales for less money.

If you can’t find a difference then look again at your product or service; how can you make it different and what differences will turn into sales?

Lack of procedures or controls
Initially business is manic. Boxing product on your kitchen table, and answering customer emails between feeding the baby. As the business grows this isn’t scaleable and so you find yourself unable to sell more, or dropping your standards.

By taking the time to set up process and controls you can make time efficiencies and so do more. These cold be as simple as email templates or linking you payment gateway to your accounting. Some of this you can even get a consultant to set up for you – there goes the excuse of “I’m to busy to change that”.

You have lost focus on the dream
When you started you were full of energy and were pushing to make your big ambitions come true. Initially that energy gave you a spurt of growth. But now, with the daily grind of accounting and paperwork and managing staff, you are focused on the now and not growing the business.

You need to look again at those goals and reset them with long-term and short-term objectives.

You haven’t revised your business plan.
We come across this all the time. The business plan you put so much effort into hasn’t been looked at for 6 months and definitely hasn’t been updated for the actual results.

The “old” plan won’t reflect everything you have learned so far and how the business has evolved. You need to refresh it to match it to the actual business performance and so prompt you to make decisions that promote growth. We recommend that you regularly re-read your business plan and support it with and actual versus budget cashflow.

Everything is done by you.
Early days of business mean saving money and getting it done quick. You may also want to learn key skills, so Facebook advertising, so that you can talk knowledgeably about it and fix problems. But there comes a point where you need to stop doing non-core parts of your business and focus on where you give most value.

That doesn’t mean not being involved. You still have a leadership role but you are not doing the actually doing. Get someone else to do that and so have an objective position where you see the whole picture and so can direct resources (and money!) more effectively.
This freeing up of your time and better visibility has massive effect on the business.

Price discounting
To grow business most of us drop prices. That lowers your margins and it’s hard to increase prices afterwards.
Look at ways of splitting up your service to be an easier price point for people to buy at. This may be a shorter subscription or a lower quantity. Alternatively find a way that you can add value to the client at a great profit margin for you. After service support, recurring sales. There are lots of options to explore and these can be part of the scenarios in your business plan and cashflow

If any of the above rings true, then give us a call to help. We can help you explore growth strategies, make plans with you, and even more importantly help implement them.